What Went Wrong With Justice League Comedic Pitch Meeting

As news continues to pour in over how Justice Leagueis falling short of expectations, both critically and financially, this is one of those times where people often ask “what were they thinking?” The DCEU seemed to be on the road to recovery after Wonder Womanshattered all expectations. Sure, Justice League isn’t faring as bad with critics as Suicide Squador Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, but considering this is the DCEU’s equivalent of the Avengers, it should really be doing far better than it is.

The reality is most people will never know what discussions happen in the meeting rooms behind big movies like Justice League, leaving plenty of room for comedic imagination. Enter the Screen Rant Pitch Meeting series. It may not be exactly how it happened, but at least it’s fun, right?

For starters, there’s Steppenwolf. This is the big bad threat that was so dangerous it required the formation of DC’s most powerful heroes. Steppenwolf was criticized by many as a giant CGI mess that lacked character, similar to some of the worst villains from, the MCU. Did he simply suffer from deleted footage, like much of the movie, or was he conceived that way? He looks very little like his comic book counterpart and fans do love it when classic costumes are tinkered with, right? Didn’t that work out well for Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine?

Then there’s the age old Avengers challenge to get the heroes to cooperate. Remember how Iron Man and Thor had that cool fight in the forest? Forgoing all that drama, Justice League’s heroes agree to join the team pretty much instantaneously.

The satirical writer’s meeting mocks just how little conflict there was between the heroes that they suddenly decide to have Bruce Wayne act like him and Superman were good friends. Sure, they spent most of Dawn of Justice fighting and really only teamed up for a few minutes, but they bonded pretty strong over that whole thing with both of their moms being named Martha, so Bruce really misses Clark now, which is a major contention for many people who feel the movie was too quick to abandon the events of Batman v Superman. Then there’s the fact that Henry Cavill promoted the film, but they also wanted to Superman’s resurrection a well-kept secret, which has also raised a few eyebrows. So just leaving Superman off the posters seemed like a surefire way to keep fans in the dark.

And lastly Justice League would of course want to capitalize on its most well-received movie to date, so the Amazons from Wonder Woman had to be featured. Female empowerment clearly struck a chord with people, so the writers wondered, how do they encapsulate that? And then it hit them: battle bikinis. Because what woman doesn’t yearn to fight off evil in armor so skimpy it wouldn’t really protect anything?

Sounds like a recipe for success. What could possibly go wrong? You can watch the rest of the comedic pitch meeting above, and be sure to share what you imagine the discussion in the movie meetings was like as well or if there are any other pitch meetings you’d like to see us make!